Twitter Introduces Video App Ads, Bidding Based On Actions & Installs

A year after launching its app install ad feature, Twitter says advertisers are getting strong ROI from the program.

Twitter announced several additions to its app install advertising tool kit today.

Advertisers will be able to promote apps within video ads and optimize bidding for installs and actions. Here’s how Twitter described the new bidding features, to be rolled out globally in the coming months, in a blog post:

Optimized action bidding: This new bidding type allows app install advertisers to optimize their bids according to install, while still paying by app click — offering another way to lower cost-per-installs and yield the highest possible ROI.

Cost per install bidding: Advertisers can bid, optimize and pay by install giving you cost-efficiency and maximum control over your cost per install.

Also, Twitter said app marketers will soon be able to target mobile users on Twitter partner apps on more than 1 billion mobile devices. Gaming company Kabam has seen strong results in testing. “We’ve been thrilled to have multiplied the scale of our top 10 grossing Marvel: Contest of Champions install campaigns by 5x by running them on Twitter partner apps,” Kabam vp of marketing Jordan Edelstein said in the Twitter blog post. “We look forward to the opportunity using mobile app promotion to help maintain Kabam’s market leadership position.”

Twitter, which introduced its app install ad products a year ago, said advertisers using the program are seeing high returns on investment across all verticals, from tech to entertainment to retail. It said delivery service Postmates doubled conversions and experienced cost per install rates 25% lower than other ad platforms. Lyft said it’s getting up to three times better performance than other social channels. Comedy Central said it has exceeded its CPI goals by 66%.

Ticketing service SeatGeek is also pleased. “Over the course of the last year, we’ve consistently been able to beat our cost per install targets by 20% on several hundred thousand installs,” SeatGeek director of growth Will Flaherty said in the Twitter post. “We saw strong gains in cost efficiency using tailored audiences to exclude previous app installs from our user acquisition campaigns, even as we’ve continued to scale our efforts.”